Council OKs job classifications

Jay County Community Corrections will get a new employee while another in the assessor’s office will receive a raise.
Jay County Council approved Wednesday two new employee classifications and set guidelines for how such changes will be considered in the future.
It also extended an invitation to department heads to take an active role in the budget process, placed a chunk of local option income tax (LOIT) dollars into the rainy day fund and tabled a decision about repairs at Jay County Retirement Center.
Both new job classifications had been discussed at previous meetings and sent to consulting firm Waggoner, Irwin, Scheele and Associates for its review. The firm suggested a salary range of $37,800 to $40,955 for the new deputy director position at community corrections, with the employee responsible for implementing programs at Jay County Jail and supervising staff.
Yvette Weiland, executive director of community corrections, described the job as similar to that of the jail commander and requested the salary be set at $38,979. It will be paid entirely from state grant funds.
Jay County assessor Diana Stults had requested an increase in salary at council’s April meeting, explaining that her deputy, Cherrie Geesaman, does work beyond what is in her job description. Stults estimated that her office is saving more than $200,000 per year because Geesaman is handling duties that were previously done by outside contractors.
Waggoner, Irwin, Scheele agreed with that assessment, recommending that a new job classification of reassessment manager be created to mirror the work Geesaman is doing.
The classification included an increase in salary to $29,920 from the previous $26,608.
Geesaman’s previous job classification will remain in place in case future employees do not have the qualifications to fill the reassessment manager role.
Gary Theurer, Ted Champ, Jeanne Houchins, Bob Vance and Mike Rockwell approved the new classifications with Mike Leonhard and Cindy Newton absent.
In response to concerns raised in April about receiving frequent requests for such job classification changes, Champ recommended adopting an idea suggested in a recent editorial in The Commercial Review. Rather than accepting such requests throughout the year, council decided to set one meeting — in March — to do so. That will allow enough time for Waggoner, Irwin, Scheele to review those requests and council to act on them before the budget approval process begins.
Champ also suggested inviting department heads to take a greater role in the budget process. Though council makes the final financial decisions, he said, it’s important that department heads know their input is valuable in the process.
“They’re a part of this team,” he said. “I’m not going to tell any department head they can come in and tell us you want this and you’re going to get it, but they’re running their departments so maybe we could pick something up from them that might help.”
County council, commissioners and a joint budget committee have been reviewing the budget after $500,000 was taken from the rainy day fund in an effort to balance the general fund budget.
Council members decided to send a letter to department heads giving them the option to sit down with an individual council member to discuss their needs and/or to present their thoughts to council at its July meeting.
Handling another financial matter, council decided to place one quarter — about $233,400 — of the local option income tax (LOIT) dollars it received from the state this month into the rainy day fund. It had previously discussed placing the money into rainy day in an effort to replenish money that had been taken from the fund in recent years. The other 75 percent was required to go into a special fund set aside for road and bridge improvements.
The group also decided to wait on making a decision on a request from commissioner Faron Parr and retirement center director Patti Clevenger for about $50,000 in repairs. Clevenger has gotten quotes of about $23,000 for the retirement center garage, which would be rebuilt on its current foundation, and $27,000 for work on the supports, floor and doors in the barn.
With money tight, Parr asked that at least the garage and barn doors be approved — he estimated the cost at less than $30,000 for that work — for this summer.
Vance suggested delaying the decision until the budget committee discusses the retirement center at its June 1 meeting. The center was brought up for discussion at the budget committee’s May 4 meeting, but it was tabled because of some confusion about revenue.
“I’d just like to see what he says, get some hard figures,” said Vance of financial consultant Greg Guerrettaz.
Parr expressed concern that delaying the decision might make it difficult to get the work done this year. To help move things along, council decided to allow auditor Anna Culy to advertise up to $50,000 in additional appropriations for the repairs pending council approval.
In other business, council:
•Approved additional appropriations of $5,000 from the rainy day fund for a part-time employee in the veterans’ service office, $22,000 from county economic development income tax (CEDIT) to pay Guerrettaz for his services, $4,334 from the infrastructure fund to help pay for an ambulance for Jay Emergency Medical Service and $7,461.50 for work completed by Meridian Services for Jay Superior Court.